Video Premier 001: “Dream Scheme” by Gloom (feat. Bijou)
Lost in Sound is happy to announce the birth of our Video Premier series as an effort to support quality and unique audiovisual production within the pioneering music scene that we’re so proud to be a part of.
Our first series features the work of Gloom, an up-and-coming artist from Tipping Hand Recordings in Los Angeles. Gloom’s newest EP High Tide dropped on January 14th as the sophomore release on this small but promising label. The center piece of this new EP is titled “Dream Scheme,” and appropriately so. This highly experimental and ethereal composition is extremely effective at conveying a deep, muddled, and hazy dream-like state of mind. The layered and highly melancholic vibe of this track is truly captivating as well as emotionally engaging. We had a chance to catch up with Gloom and pick his brain in an effort to peel away at the layers that make him someone to watch out for in 2014.
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[LiS] What is your musical background? Are you classically trained, or would you consider yourself self-taught?
[Gloom] I am not classically trained, but I have been playing music for 14 years. I picked up the guitar at 13 and started trying to play Nirvana songs. Since then I have played in lots of bands with friends doing guitar, singing, drums, and keys. I do not know much music theory and primarily play by ear. I have never enjoyed the idea of following rules, especially in art. I’ve known violin players who could read music flawlessly and play in major orchestras but could not improvise.
When was ‘Gloom’ conceived, and how long have you been producing? Gloom started about three years ago. I was still recovering from breaking my back and had a hard time standing up with a guitar around my shoulder for three hour band practices. At the time I was living with people who used Ableton Live and made post psy-trance experimental music that I helped them coin psy-prance. I really like making sounds, even when I played guitar I ran it through as many effects as I could so it wouldn’t sound like guitar. Having the control to make or alter every sound in a song was the best thing in the world to me. I remember using Windows sound recorder way back in the day and just pitching things down, reversing them, and using echo. I have also worked in a recording studio but soon after starting I realized that I didn’t like recording other people’s music.
“Dream Scheme” is a terrific track, and the video is very well shot. Where did the concept for this come from, and what would you say are the underlying motifs?
Most of my concepts aren’t like “Hey I’m gonna make a song about that time my girlfriend dumped me” – I just start making music and shape and tune things ’til they feel good. Later after the song is done, it sometimes reveals to me some of my deeper feelings. For me I think “Dream Scheme” has a mood that supports being a little tired of the hustle and bustle of this society, and at the same time not giving up and doing your best to fulfill your goals.
How do you plan to bring your music forward in 2014? Will you be performing at any festivals that we should be aware of?
I would love to play festivals. It’s kind of hard in my life right now to see what will happen. I have been getting really into video game development and pixel art. I imagine I will be making a lot of music that will be accompanied by small games. I definitely like the idea of interactive musical releases.
If you had to evacuate your studio and could only bring five pieces of gear with you, what would you bring? What would you leave behind?
Computer, MPK25, H2N, Speakers, Fender Rhodes (if it was a fire I probably wouldn’t make it out). I would leave behind all the little cheap instruments.. Xylophone, xelodica, thumb piano, MIDI controllers, out of tune piano, and broken guitar. But really I don’t like to think about this. Why am I evacuating? That sounds stressful :/ and I don’t want any of my stuff to be ruined – it’s taken so long to get what I have!
Lost in Sound is proud to have the honor to premiere the music video for “Dream Scheme” and offer you a free mp3 download of the song. We hope to set the bar high with our first video premier, and encourage more artists to create video productions of this caliber. The video for “Dream Scheme” was shot and edited by Skot Coatsworth at Pixel Pines, and the track is featured on Gloom’s High Tide EP.
